The present invention relates to a disk player and, more particularly, to a multidisk containing player which can accommodate multiple data recording disks (referred to simply as "disks"), and is capable of selecting any of the disks and playing the selected disks in successive order.
The multidisk containing player has been known and is disclosed in Japanese Patent Un-examined Publication No. 64-52250, for example. The player comprises playing means including a turntable and a pickup, a magazine accommodating a plurality of disks and being removably mounted on a mounting portion as installed within the player housing, the magazine accommodating a plurality of disks arrayed in the direction orthogonal to the disk carrying surface of the turntable, and a disk pickup/transfer mechanism which selectively picks up one by one the disks as contained in the magazine, transfers the selected disk onto the turntable, and retracts the disk from the turntable into the magazine.
In such a multidisk-containing player, when a selected disk is transferred from the inside of the magazine to a playing location, i.e., a turntable, the disk is moved in two directions, a direction parallel to the disk carrying surface of the turntable, and a direction perpendicular to such a direction, i.e., the direction in which disks are arrayed within the magazine. The transfer of the disk in the two directions is carried out by a disk selecting and transferring mechanism. To be more specific, either the playing means containing the turntable or the magazine is held by a movable carrying member The movable carrying member is driven, by a drive means, to be reciprocatingly moved in the disk array direction. This effects the movement of the disk in the disk array direction.
For the movement of the disk in the direction parallel to the disk carrying surface of the turntable, the following construction is employed.
As shown in FIGS. 28 and 29, the magazine is made up of a housing 251 that is shaped like a parallelepiped as a whole and serves as a main body of the magazine, and a plurality of plate-like trays 254. The trays 254 are arrayed orthogonal to the disk carrying surface of the turntable (the direction of an arrow Z and its opposite direction), within the housing. The trays are rotatable about a support shaft 252 extending in the disk array direction. A disk is set on the main surface of each of the trays 254. Each tray is ejectable from and retractable into the housing along the main surface. Thus, by merely ejecting each tray 254 carrying the disk thereon out of the housing 251, the disk 253 is transferred in one direction (parallel to the disk carrying surface of the turntable).
A tray push member 256, shaped like an L, is rotatably provided on the side of the magazine. The tray push member engages one of the trays 254, and pushes the tray outside the housing 251 A slide member 257, which is disposed close to the magazine, is movable rectilinearly and reciprocatingly The slide member 257 engages at its tip 257a with the tray push member 256. When driven by a drive means (not shown), the slide member applies a rotational moment to the tray push member 256, thereby turning the tray push member. As shown in FIGS. 29 and 30, a pair of pins 256a is formed on the tray push member 256 The pins 256a are slidably coupled with semi-circular guide grooves that are formed in the movable carrying member (not shown) carrying the playing means. When the pins slide in and along the guide grooves, the tray push member 256 is guided and turned.
Each tray 254 is relatively moved and positioned with respect to the turntable in the tray array direction by reciprocatingly moving the movable carrying member carrying the playing means containing the turntable, the pickup, and the like, in the direction in which the trays 254 are arrayed (arrow Z and its opposite direction). The disk 253 on the tray is positioned on the turntable in such a manner that the tray push member 256 is turned to push and eject a desired tray 254 out of the magazine.
As described above, to load any desired disk with the conventional front loading disk players, this would include transferring the disk whose surface area is large. As a result, it is necessary to secure space large enough to move the disk within the player housing, and this makes it difficult to reduce the size of the player.
Further, there is a growing demand in recent years for a front loading disk player which can be mounted close to the driver of a car. However, the space allowed for the player in the vicinity of the driver is so small that it is difficult to respond to the above demand by only employing the conventional construction.